greetings from austin, texas!
a few weekends ago my mom, sister & i took off and road tripped it 3 hours south of dallas to austin for a long weekend to stay, shop and eat our way through the city.
i’d love to share some of the places we visited & loved….if you care to see just scroll on:
on our way from dallas to austin we stopped in waco to eat at magnolia table but upon arrival we found out the wait was 3 hours!!!!! um, no. so we took some pics on the property and then walked our butts next door to rudy’s and had some pretty badass bbq and got in & out within 20 minutes, can’t beat that!
after filling our bellies we were off to visit the magnolia silos since i had never been and wanted to browse around and see what it was all about. the silos were pristine and it was cool to see but i found that everything was overpriced. i would have wanted a candle or something but really didn’t want to pay $30 🙁 it was an awesome “rest stop” don’t get me wrong, loved that they had food trucks and drinks out in this open area where kids can run around and there were games and swings, but the store itself was a bit much. beautiful visual displays though!
#milestomagnolia
clocks galore
mugs on mugs on mugs
tee shirts for sale
with mom!
after walking around & stretching our legs for a bit, we hopped back in the car to continue our journey to austin & ended up arriving to our airbnb around 3 pm.
we opted to stay in the hills versus the city this trip (last time we visited austin we stayed right off congress ave.) and we really enjoyed the peace & quiet of this place. we liked it because it had a pool and hot tub and seemed like a slice of heaven 10 minutes away from the city center. the neighborhood we stayed in was called “cat mountain” and after we checked in and scoping out our weekend digs we made our way to a lookout point the host recommended called “mount bonnell” to snap a few pics overlooking the colorado river.
beautiful pool at our airbnb
austin, texas cityscape at mt. bonnell lookout viewpoint
overlooking the colorado river
we were ready for dinner at this point so we looked into getting some tacos and discovered “taco joint” via yelp which had great reviews and was on east riverside so we went there for dinner and it really was amazing!
left: street taco (grilled sirloin, avocado, cilantro & queso fresco), right: el 420 (beef carnitas in tangy guisadito sauce with shoestring papitas)
after dinner we wanted to walk around and shop a bit, but it was thursday night and a lot of shops on south congress were already closed, but we found one that was open called maya star, so we poked around a bit & mirelle and i found matching necklaces – we’re such twinks!
the cutest rainbow display of real succulents in mini dinosaur & animal holders!!!
new necklace, mirelle got the same one but in a pretty peach color
we ended the night on a sweet note with ice cream from the tasty spoon on s.1st street, where i got coconut (of course!) and a topo chico. i developed a weird obsession with topo chico this trip, i’ve always loved carbonated water but everywhere we went i would get one!
the next day we woke up bright & early to get some coffee and set out on a vintage shopping adventure.
we started the morning at mozart’s coffee roasters overlooking the colorado river & sat down to enjoy some caffeine and pastries and map out the hot spots we wanted to hit up and plan our route to be most efficient (on the back of a napkin, ha!)
sister love
breakfast of champions. that flakey cheesy thing was SO good & the coffee cake was TDF!
back-of-napkin vintage shopping plan
buffalo exchange was our first stop then we walked across the street to “i luv vintage” and after shopping around those two shops we walked over to steel city pops for a little treat.
i tried strawberry lemonade and it was so yummy!
after cooling off we went to the drag area to go into some boutiques and urban outfitters and to find lunch. pizza sounded good to all of us so we hit up austin’s pizza and got big ass slices and split a salad.
#ootd in the most comfortable target jumpsuit ever! you can find the exact one i’m wearing under “shop my instagram.” it felt like i was wearing pajamas & i received so many compliments on it! win, win.
after lunch we headed to south 1st/congress area to go into some more vintage shops, like bloomers & frocks, flashback & prototype and after all that walking, we decided to head back to our airbnb to rest, with a sno-cone pit stop from sno beach on the way.
i got a mixture of coconut & watermelon, mirelle got passionfruit/pina colada & my mom got margarita flavor. the ice was so smooth it melted in your mouth, it was so tasty!
we got back to our airbnb & my mom and mel lounged in the hot tub and i napped and once we were all nice and rested it was time to figure out where to go eat again 🙂
i was craving bbq and when in austin….you eat bbq, so we found iron works downtown and headed that way. at this point it was 8:30 so they were out of a few sides and things, but they still had brisket and the food was pretty damn good.
i had the brisket with beans and macaroni & cheese, with extra pickles and a topo chico.
you can probably guess at this point that after dinner we wanted a bite of something sweet 🙂 my mom wanted to treat us to dessert at the four season’s, so we walked there and split two very decadent options from their restaurant “trio” & sat out on the patio, which was so nice. we ordered the flourless chocolate brownie and the fireside s’mores – the s’mores was my fav!
the whole time we were eating dessert we were eying this hammock in their courtyard steps away from us so once we paid the bill we ran over to it and all 3 got in. a tickle war broke out and i love that mirelle snapped this action photo of us laughing because it sums up our relationship perfectly. i love traveling with these two!
saturday was the last full day of our trip so we woke up early(ish) to grab some coffee from epoch & breakfast from the omlettery.
breakfast time! we split all of this food and it was the perfect amount.
when we went in to breakfast i saw there was a juice bar next door so i saved some room and ordered one after we ate from the soup peddler.
i created my own mixture with orange, grapefruit, pineapple & watermelon and loved the tangy/tart/sweet combo.
we shopped some more and by the time we knew it it was noon and we were all in agreement that it was time for lunch. we wanted something simple like soup & salad but wanted to try a new-to-us place and something that was unique to austin and my mom found a gem! it’s called foodheads cafe & was nestled in an old austin home the had the most quaint patio.
i ordered vegan coconut milk tomato bisque with a greek salad and salt & vinegar chips, plus a topo chico (duh)
post-lunch we went to check out the graffiti park at castle hills to snap some photos & it was so chaotic! there were so many photoshoots going on it was nuts and the smell of spray paint was intoxicating, but we were able to find some cute areas we liked and i got these shots:
it was about time for another something-sweet so we went to the famous amy’s ice cream for a cone. i got sweet cream with jr. mint mixed in a waffle cone.
after food & photos, it was suntanning at our aibnb time. we relaxed until the shade took over and then got ready to meet up with our cousin matt & his girlfriend ashley at mandola’s for dinner, which was the cutest little italian restaurant!
my mom & i split a salad and pizza with olives, goat cheese and sausage
family dinner at mandola’s with gelato in-hand!
& that’s a wrap! the next morning we woke up to make our way back to dallas, making an obligatory break at the czech stop in west, texas
thank you for reading and scrolling through the tons of photos from our trip.
i love austin & had so much to share and wanted to document this mom/daughter trip forever as it was one for the books!
